


Here Be Dragons

by SilverUtahraptor



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gift Fic, Rebuilt Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, here be dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29061675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverUtahraptor/pseuds/SilverUtahraptor
Summary: Toru did not expect meeting a dragon to be on today’s schedule.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Here Be Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FiresFromOurHearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Wayfinders](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21692362) by [FiresFromOurHearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts). 



> A birthday gift for the most wonderful [FiresFromOurHearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts). Fire, Happy Birthday! I love you and I hope you have a wonderful day and year 2021 and yeah. I’m eternally grateful I got to know you the last year ❤️ This is just a tiny bit of silliness I thought you might like.  
>   
> Everyone else: The characters and setting (except the dragon) are from her amazing series [The Sea Never Dies](https://archiveofourown.org/series/715674) \- you should all go and read that but what you need to know for reading this is that Toru is the Uzukage and rebuilt/recalled Uzushio.

“... Dai, will you go tell the teams to stand down? It’s not an emergency.” Toru can’t quite keep the delight out of his voice. It’s one thing to see and use techniques inspired by dragons, and another thing else entirely to meet an _actual dragon_. Who was apparently sleeping in a sealed cave on Uzushio, undiscovered until just now, and is looking around with what Toru would call confusion on a human face.

“I’m Toru,” he says as the rest of his team moves backwards to give the dragon more space, “and you’re in Uzushio.”

The dragon turns its - his? - head to look at him with one giant shining eye the color of a late sunset. “ _Uzushio… fell,_ ” a deep voice that makes Toru think of those endless ocean depths where light never touches rumbles with just a hint of uncertainty, “ _didn’t it?_ ”

He inclines his head and thinks of a village burning, burning, burning. “It did,” he allows. “But the sea never dies, and Uzushio‘s people have come home.” (And now their village stands proud once more, never to fall again.)

The dragon makes a pleased sound somewhere deep in his chest and coils his entire body closer. Sora shifts slightly somewhere behind him, but Toru stays relaxed. He can’t sense any hostility from the dragon, and he has a feeling that there’s no danger here. “ _The sea never dies, indeed,_ ” the creature straight out of myth repeats, still sounding pleased. “ _I like that. Your chakra is lovely._ ”

Toru blinks at the non sequitur and can’t help but smile. “... Thanks?” Behind him, he can _feel_ the amusement radiating off his team. He’ll be teased about this for ages.

“ _It’s very calming, like the ocean before a thunderstorm._ _And a hint of forest fire in the distance_.”

The dragon… is not wrong, though Toru would maybe not describe his chakra as _calming._ He just doesn’t turn it deadly until he must. The dragon’s chakra on the other hand feels almost overwhelming, like something not quite out of this world. With all of Uzushio’s jinchuriki, Toru is used to people with immense chakra pools, but the dragon’s chakra - possibly the strongest water affinity he’s ever felt - goes sort of blurry at the edges and is constantly shifting in a way he has never seen before. Well, he has never met a dragon before either, so he probably doesn’t have the right frame of reference.

“W _ould you tell me about the elemental nations? And the villages. I’ve… slept for a while._ ” The deep voice sounds almost sheepish for a bit.

A dragon interested in the shinobi villages? Huh. Toru still can’t sense any sort of hostility from the mythical creature so he doesn’t see a point in denying this request. He won’t be divulging village secrets anytime soon, but summing up the current political landscape will be easy, since he deals with it on a daily basis. “Would you like to move somewhere else, or would you rather stay here?” The quick look Toru took at the seals in this cave earlier told him that they were inactive now, but there didn’t seem to be any instabilities to the cave itself.

The dragon stretches, which involves several feet of white sinuous coils shifting, throwing off blue shimmer in the seallight. Toru catches a glimpse of what looks like a few large scars where the scales are more dull and clustered densely. “ _I need more time to wake up properly, so if you don’t mind, I would like to stay here for a while_.”

Toru nods. “It won’t be a problem.” He glances back at his team, signing a quick order to clear his schedule for the rest of the day. Dai takes a few steps towards the cave entrance to relay his orders again.

“ _You can come closer. Your team as well,_ ” the dragon allows, turning his head to look at Toru’s team more closely. “ _They’re really well-trained_.”

“They are,” Toru agrees with some amusement as he steps closer, keeping his body language open and slow. He’s pretty sure Dai makes a weird squeaky sound at being praised by a _dragon_ , but that’s her problem.

They all more than deserve the praise, obviously. Somehow he’s extraordinarily pleased at the dragon acknowledging this.

Toru eyes the stony cave floor close to the dragon. The dragon _sighs_ , a deep rumbling sound that nevertheless sounds quite put out, and blatantly shifts part of his body in a rather obvious invitation. Toru hesitates for a second before he sits down on one of the coils, throwing out a hand to steady himself. The scales are surprisingly warm and soft to the touch when he runs his hand across them. Sora, Souma and Dai drift closer as well and settle down, not quite touching the dragon.

“ _My name,_ ” the dragon says as he rests his head on one of his many coils close to where Toru sits, “ _is Tobirama._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this totally will end up with a human-dragon cuddle pile.  
> Fire, you like Toru and dragons so somehow this happened. YES, the dragon is the actual Tobirama. No I don’t know how he knows that Uzushio fell. He dreamed about it or something.


End file.
